New Haven high school, middle school elevators to be repaired

Repairs to elevators at New Haven's middle school and high school are the first projects to be approved that will use funds from the General Obligation bond that East Allen County Schools' board recently approved.

The elevators have been issues for around a year, EACS assistant superintendent Kirby Stahly told the board during Tuesday's regularly scheduled meeting. The repairs were urgent, Stahly said, because students with individualized plans need to access them but the elevator reliability was in decline.

The cost of the repair is a little more than $173,000 and the work will be performed by Hamilton Hunter Builders.

The Hamilton Hunter bid for the repairs was the only one received by the district, which prompted questioning from board members Arden Hoffman and Christopher Baker, since Stahly explained that the district's internal budget had projected a lower cost for the repairs.

"Timing had something to do with it," Stahly said, explaining that since the work was being solicited and needed to be finished in the narrow window between the end of this school year and the start of the next, he recommended that the board approved the bid but did acknowledge that he would have preferred that the district had received one more, simply to compare prices.

Baker, though clearly not thrilled with the circumstance, acknowledged that circumstance and voted with five other members of the board to approve the repairs; Hoffman cast a dissenting vote.

The $2 million general obligation bond was approved by the board in November 2013. It will be used for work at Cedarville and Southwick elementaries, New Haven High School, New Haven Intermediate School, New Haven Elementary and other facilities and will be repaid over three years, starting this year.